Question for Jensen: Great Depression and WWII

[Big]

Jensen, please explain to me how is it that Government spending during Great Depression before WWII did not recover America from Depression completely but WWII did?

[Big]

This is the question that no public school teacher will dare to discuss to the full extent.

[JensenS]

Jensen, please explain to me how is it that Government spending during Great Depression before WWII did not recover America from Depression completely but WWII did?

I'm not going to pretend to be an expert about the state of our economy during the Great Depression before World War Two, but from what I understand we were spending a lot on Roosevelt's domestic welfare programs, but we simply weren't spending enough.

Once the war came around the government was spending massive amounts of money on production, people who hadn't had jobs were able to get them producing goods for the war, and with the money they made they bought mostly war bonds, as rationing made access to regular consumer products rather limited.

You could probably argue that the limited access to consumer goods during the war is what led to the consumer culture of the 1950's, as that was the first time in a long time that many people had been able to buy things.

[Big]

Ah, a pretty good observation Jensen.

In 1933 the government was spending about $15 billion on public projects that put people to work and improved the economy.

During WWII the government spending increased to $103 billion and the Depression was over.

What stopped the government to spend much more money on public projects than $15 billion in 1933? The answer is: Capitalist ideology. All the rich and powerful businessmen were against government intervention because it was flying right against private enterprise.

So, it is clear that the only reason WWII helped to cure Depression was because the government was FORCED to increase spending by a lot whereas during the Great Depression a capitalist ideology prevented the full out effort.

This argument, my friend, you will not hear in public classrooms.

[matclone]

I was wondering when we were going to hear your thesis, Big.

As to war bonds and consumer goods and all that, a story in my family supports what Jensen said about the times. I heard that Grandmother told the kids (including my Dad) one year or more that all they were getting for Christmas was war bonds.

[Big]

matclone,

This is a classic case of a communist ideology co-existing along capitalist ideology. Both are necessary. When things go wrong, communist ideas help out and when things are great capitalist ideas take over.

Pure laissez-faire is little better than pure communism. In fact, war and exploitation are usually the side effects of pure laissez-faire

[matclone]

Where do you find pure laissez-faire, or communism? I've never seen them.

[Big]

Where do you find pure laissez-faire, or communism? I've never seen them.

Maybe not pure but the more there is of one at the expense of the other the worse off is the situation.

[oc]

Taking millions of men out of the workforce created a lobor shortage, government demand for war material spurred demand. The real secret though is after the war, the rest of the world was bombed back into the stone age, while America had her infrastructure intact; this allowed the economy to purr along after the war. We had a world wide demand to fill.